seeing no evil, hearing no evil, speaking no evil outside of bera

“I confess freely to you, I could never look long upon a monkey, without very mortifying reflections.” –William Congreve

“You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can only make a monkey out of the voters every four years!” –Pat Paulsen

I have written about India in some earlier posts. My trip to India in the fall of 2013 altered my life. I have traveled to many countries, but none have been so strange and ‘other worldly’ as India. (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

Among the many places in India where I visited, Bera in Rajasthan might have been one of the most exciting and pleasurable. We spent several nights at the Heritage Hotel Castle Bera. It was a very comfortable stay. I felt spoiled.

“Yes, I’ve kissed a lot of guys. I like to kiss, but that’s it. I don’t go home with anyone. I sleep with my animals, like my baby monkey, Brigitte Bardot.” –Paris Hilton

While in Bera we took separately two ‘safaris’ to see monkeys and leopards. (The leopard adventure will be in a later post.)

As others have remarked on many occasions, monkeys can seem too human. Darwin tells us that we were they. It was then that we were not destroying nature and thus not human.

Whether looking at them in zoos, they make me laugh. The lion is scary. the bear can be intense. The elephant seems always to be over weight. The monkey makes people laugh. (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

When a monkey looks into a mirror, what would he see?

“People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?” ―Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

If a monkey looks into a mirror, an apostle is hardly likely to look back. When a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey. Could that make a monkey superior? (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)

I have lately been paying attention to Donald Trump, the entrepreneur and presidential candidate for the Republican Party. Darwin would tell us that a difference between a monkey and a human is the ability to gauge intelligence. That is itself a form of intelligence. Monkeys do not seem to ponder how smart they are. Can I say the same for our politicians? Some of them? (Click on any photo to see it larger and in more detail.)